Cultural Schemas Research Articles

Cultural Linguistics and linguistic relativity

This article aims to contribute to scholarly attempts to clarify the claims made by the early proponents of linguistic relativity. It also presents an account of the recently developed area of Cultural Linguistics and outlines how the scope of this multidisciplinary area of research differs from that of studies dedicated to linguistic relativity. For example, while linguistic relativity has been viewed as presenting a ‘hypothesis’ or a ‘theory complex’ regarding the relationship between thought and language, Cultural Linguistics offers a theoretical and analytical framework that focuses on examining features of language that encode conceptualisations rooted in the cultural experiences of speakers. The basic premise underlying the approach of Cultural Linguistics is that certain features of human languages are entrenched in such cultural conceptualisations as cultural schemas, cultural categories, and cultural metaphors.

Metaphor and Action Embodiment in the Glorious Quran

This paper investigates how man is metaphorically conceptualized in the Quran, and how metaphor embodies his actions. The main aim is to arrive at a better understanding of the Quranic discourse, see how metaphor gives structure to human actions which bring him either salvation or damnation on Doomsday. Embodiment refers to all man's biological capacities and his physical and social experiences that he lives in his environment and which are executed by his different organs and senses. The article presents a brief contrast between the pious body and the secular body, an overview of the development of metaphorical thought and the dialectical relationship between language, man and nature. I have collected all man-related metaphoric verses from the Quran by referring to every single organ of man's body; and these organs were addressed top-to-bottom and front-to-back in terms of order and then analyzed in terms of the action/s each one of them embodies. To tie analysis down to our life as we experience it and accord it credit and value, it has been boiled down into a number of social and cultural schematic categories. Data analysis yields five social and cultural schemata: (i) Up is dignified. Down is not. (ii) Front is dignified. Back disgraced. (iii) Private should remain private. This is more polite, (iv) Intimacy means closeness. Closeness generates warmth and (v) Physical closeness gives strength.

Career and/or Motherhood? Gender and the LDS Church

This article examines the ways in which the gendered religious schemas pertaining to career and motherhood are set up and reinforced by the Latter Day Saints (LDS) Church and how these schemas affect the everyday lives of Mormons. We show how gender, class, and region intersect and impact how religious individuals interpret gendered religious schemas. Analysis of qualitative interview data shows that for very religious men and women, the gendered cultural schemas of work and motherhood are distinct and tend to constrain women. Considering the intersections of class with gender, the analysis shows that some middle-class Mormons reject oppositional cultural schemas and value work and career for women. Further, we find that Mormons outside of the cultural stronghold of Utah are more likely to reject Mormon religious schemas that pit career and motherhood as competing ideologies. In fact, some women participants describe being enabled in their careers by Mormon religious schemas.

Early Immersive Culture Mixing

Why some multicultural individuals think and identify differently to others is a question that is yet to be clearly answered. We suggest that a key antecedent to psychological differences among multiculturals is early immersive culture mixing, or experiencing multiple cultures simultaneously at home while growing up. We propose that innate multiculturals (defined as individuals who have experienced early immersive culture mixing) are cognitively guided by a single hybrid cultural schema and have a hybrid cultural identity. This would make them fundamentally different from achieved multiculturals (individuals who have become multicultural in other ways), who should possess multiple distinct cultural schemas and cultural identities. A quasi-experiment indicated that, as predicted, innate multiculturals were guided by a single cultural frame with respect to attribution and locus of attention, whereas achieved multiculturals switched between different cultural frames. Innate multiculturals also reported a more integrated cultural identity than did achieved multiculturals. These findings open a new avenue in multiculturalism research, with important potential implications of early immersive culture mixing for a range of individual outcomes such as creativity.

Large cultural networks and smart specialization: What is new in regional policy diagnostic analytics?

Measuring the temporal centrality of concepts in a relevant information sphere (e.g., contemporary social media such as Instagram) combined with a firm-level analytical perspective can be applied to the analysis of social, cultural, and entrepreneurial schemas and mechanisms. In this context, regional policy and diagnostic analytics constitute an emerging and increasingly prominent research field which relies on trustworthy sources of big data to explore localized entrepreneurial discovery projects to improve the effectiveness of regional policy. In line with European Community regional policies and the recent focus on smart specialization strategies, we investigate the cultural and creative industry (C&Ci) and its participation in economic growth. The research adopts an inductive thinking process based on the logic of discovery as opposed to innovation, as suggested by Hirshleifer (Am Econ Rev 61(4):561–574, 1971). Examination of a localized entrepreneurial discovery project involves analysis of a transition path from an existing set of collective capabilities to the foundations of a new business. Our description of the localized entrepreneurial discovery project highlights the distinctiveness of community performative meanings in relation to the dynamic evolution and distribution of the ‘sharing hashtag’ network.

"Reconstructing a Sense of Self": Trauma and Coping Among Returned Women Survivors of Human Trafficking in Vietnam.

Survivors of human trafficking who return to their community of origin must cope with the trauma they experienced as victims as well as the conditions that contributed to their trafficking vulnerabilities. In this article, I examine the psychosocial adjustment process among women survivors of trafficking who returned to Vietnam. Supplemented by participation observation, thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with survivors revealed that throughout the trafficking process, the women experienced multiple abuses and changes in relationships and environments. The women coped by navigating a process of "reconstructing a sense of self," seeking congruence between their self-understandings and the changing contextual factors while exhibiting three main coping strategies: regulating emotional expression and thought, creating opportunities within constraints, and relating to cultural schemas. The findings underscore the importance of considering contextual factors such as cultural norms and societal values in efforts to assist trafficked survivors reintegrate into their communities.

The Gender Contract under Neoliberalism: Palestinian-Israeli Women's Labor Force Participation

ABSTRACTThis paper interprets the pressure to raise Palestinian-Israeli women’s labor force participation within the unfolding neoliberal project in Israel, arguing that women’s stalled workforce integration reflects embedded economic rationality. Poor infrastructure and discriminatory policies, combined with Israel’s rapid economic privatization, set contradictory expectations for Palestinian-Israeli women: their opportunity-cost calculations include entitlements to economic protection alongside obligations to provide expenditure-saving domestic labor. Yet growing pressure and desire to join the paid workforce suggest that the gender contract may be changing. This cultural schema, which links women’s economic strategizing to their sense of feminine propriety, is transforming as part of a broader transition to a market-led gender regime, with the paradoxical effect of encouraging women’s employment while simultaneously impoverishing them. By dwelling on the dialectics of culture and the structure of work opportunities, and women’s agency, this paper aims to resolves an impasse in the current debate on women’s low workforce participation.

Validation of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire in Turkey and its relation to cultural schemas of individualism and collectivism

Although Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) is claimed to be universally applicable, the data brought to bear in its support come from a self-selected population with mostly English-speaking participants. To the best of our knowledge, the theory has not been hitherto tested in a predominantly Muslim country with non-western moral and religious sensibilities. In Study 1, we replicated previous findings using Turkish participants by showing through confirmatory factor analyses that the 5-factor structure of MFT provided a better fit than alternative models. In Study 2, the participants' cultural schemas of individualism and collectivism were experimentally manipulated to see the distinctness and separate manipulability of the five individual foundations. The individualism prime led to an increased concern with the harm dimension whereas the collectivism manipulation led to an increased concern with the loyalty dimension. Taken together, the findings suggest that the 5-factor model of morality is the best fitting model in Turkey as well and that it is useful in predicting the results of cultural prime manipulations.

Rupture and renewal in the Polynesian iconoclasm Sissons, Jeffrey (2014) The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 160 pp, USD85.00, hbk, ISBN: 9781782384137.

Rupture and renewal in the Polynesian iconoclasm Sissons, Jeffrey (2014) The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 160 pp, USD85.00, hbk, ISBN: 9781782384137.

Consulting Legal Experts in the Real and Virtual World: Pimps’ and Johns’ Cultural Schemas about Strategies to Avoid Arrest and Conviction

ABSTRACTThis study addressed the cultural schemas about legal issues associated with on line solicited prostitution from those embedded in the subculture. Qualitative analysis of conversations in a specialized legal website forum, coupled with interview data from 43 pimps, revealed that participants held similar realistic cultural schemas of law enforcement’s priorities and operations, and risk reduction strategies. Evasive strategies emphasized the importance of covert communication in interactions and the use of trustworthy connections (virtual verification websites and non-traceable technology) when engaging in on-line solicited prostitution. Findings have direct implication for strategies aimed at ending demand by targeting johns and pimps.

Long-term renewable human intestinal epithelial stem cells as monolayers: A potential for clinical use

PurposeCurrent culture schema for human intestinal stem cells (hISCs) frequently rely on a 3D culture system using Matrigel™, a laminin-rich matrix derived from murine sarcoma that is not suitable for clinical use. We have developed a novel 2D culture system for the in vitro expansion of hISCs as an intestinal epithelial monolayer without the use of Matrigel. MethodsCadaveric duodenal samples were processed to isolate intestinal crypts from the mucosa. Crypts were cultured on a thin coat of type I collagen or laminin. Intestinal epithelial monolayers were supported with growth factors to promote self-renewal or differentiation of the hISCs. Proliferating monolayers were sub-cultured every 4–5days. ResultsIntestinal epithelial monolayers were capable of long-term cell renewal. Less differentiated monolayers expressed high levels of gene marker LGR5, while more differentiated monolayers had higher expressions of CDX2, MUC2, LYZ, DEF5, and CHGA. Furthermore, monolayers were capable of passaging into a 3D culture system to generate spheroids and enteroids. ConclusionThis 2D system is an important step to expand hISCs for further experimental studies and for clinical cell transplantation.Level of Evidence: 1 Experimental

Beyond ‘the Eye’ of the Beholder: Scent innovation through analogical reconfiguration

The current paper examines analogical processes as drivers of innovation in the creative industries. Based on a longitudinal case study of a signature perfume label, we argue that analogies embody cultural schemas in diverse material modalities, a process commonly referred to as analogical schematization. We highlight the role of materiality to ground these analogical processes, bridging embodied cognition and material products. We extend knowledge in this area by showing, among perfumers, how analogies work not only vertically from idea to concrete product but also horizontally across modalities, leveraging material affordances in a process that we label analogical reconfiguration. We discuss the implications of understanding innovation as being driven by analogical processes where materiality is key in creating novel, yet seemingly familiar, products in the creative industries.

Transnationalism and the Karen wrist‐tying ceremony: An ethnographic account of Karen settlement practice in Brisbane

When settling, people often use cultural schema from their original homeland to build familiarity in unfamiliar surrounds. This paper draws on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the first author in Brisbane, with the Karen community from Burma, during which participant observation and interview methods were used. We present an ethnographic account of the Brisbane Karen wrist‐tying ceremony. The ceremony acts as an insight into the challenges for Karen whilst settling into Australia. It reflects multiple accounts of history and tradition, but simultaneously speaks to emerging, contemporary Karen contexts. This research contributes to richer understandings of settlement: it frames transnational cultural practice as a flexible mode of integration, rather than an exclusionary mode of othering. We propose that the integrative discourse of the ceremony creates familiarity and social connection in local and diasporic spaces. This acts as a counter to the challenges of Karen settlement including the negotiations of local/global identity politics.

The refusal speech act in a cross-cultural perspective: A study of Iranian English-language learners and Anglo-Australian speakers

This study aimed to investigate the refusal strategies of Iranian English-language learners and Anglo-Australian students to shed light on possible areas of cross-cultural miscommunication. Data were collected through a discourse completion test. Sociocultural norms underlying refusals of Iranian students were also investigated through focus group interviews (FGIs).In interaction with addressees of higher social power, both groups of participants used more indirect strategies. However, while making refusals to status equals, the performance of the Iranian and Australian participants differed from each other to a degree that could lead to intercultural miscommunication. The FGIs revealed that first language cultural schemas of tă'ărof (ritual politeness) and ru-dar-băyesti (state/feeling of distance-out-of-respect) greatly affected the refusals of the Iranian students.

Refusals of invitations and offers in Persian: Genuine or ostensible?

AbstractThis study investigated instances of Persian genuine and ostensible (ritual) refusals produced in response to genuine offers and invitations. The data was collected through ethnographic observations and was analyzed in light of a modified version of defining properties and features of ostensible speech acts proposed by Isaacs and Clark (1990). Furthermore, cultural schemas and sociocultural norms underlying ostensible refusals in Persian were investigated through focus group interviews (FGI). The results revealed that although the features of ostensible speech acts proposed by Isaacs and Clark (1990) are present in ostensible refusals in Persian, they are not always sufficient to distinguish Persian ritual and genuine refusals. The results of the focus group interviews also showed that ritual refusals in Persian are complex speech acts strongly linked to Persian cultural schemas of

Flexibility Stigma: It’s About Time!

This paper explores workplace flexibility and the development of flexibility stigma by proposing potential antecedents to flexibility stigma. Flexibility stigma is considered as a cultural schema a...

Gender and the Ideal Worker Image: Impacts on Worker Outcomes and Organizational Life

The cultural schema of the ideal worker as a man has been identified as a crucial element in the perpetuation of gender inequality in the workplace. Research has long-noted that the navigation of the ideal worker image - as one who is fully committed to and invested in organizational life above all else - is particularly problematic for women; however, recent research recognizes that men, too, are restricted by expectations of the ideal worker. Thus, the ideal worker image is far- reaching and deeply entrenched in organizational life, and offers important explanatory power for understanding gender dynamics in the workplace. As such, this symposium will examine how ideal worker images affect a range of different outcomes for workers, such as performance, bias, and individual engagement/satisfaction. We include three presentations that explore the ideal worker image in a variety of novel contexts, and the impact of the image for individuals and organizations. Discussants will provide both theoretical and pr...

Reliability generalization of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG)

ABSTRACTWhile grief is a universal experience, this phenomenon is experienced in a variety of ways largely dependent upon one’s cultural schema. To consider the potential problems inherent in generalizing the results of an assessment tool across cultures, this study explores the notion of generalizability in assessment by evaluating the reliability of the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TRIG) using a meta-analytic technique called reliability generalization. The TRIG demonstrated strong reliability with mean Cronbach’s alphas of .90 and .82 for the present and past subscales, respectively. Overall, the TRIG, especially the present subscale, appears to produce reliable scores even across cultures.

The Backyard of EFL Teaching: Issues Behind L1 Prosodic Interference in Russian English

Modern EFL teaching in Russia pays much attention to variations in the cultural schemata represented by students’ L1 and the target language, as well as behavioral patterns of their speakers. However, teaching practitioners scarcely address certain issues of Russian L1 prosodic interference that cause attitudinal confusion on the part of native English speakers. The study explores the wrong pragmatic effects created in English due to the transfer of Russian intonation contours and the reasons behind the failure of Russian EFL teachers to address the issue. Specifically, it investigates English speakers’ negative perceptions of Russian L1 intonation and examines Russian teachers’ practices and beliefs with regard to the place of intonation in a language classroom. The paper draws on findings from recent studies on effects of Russian L1 prosodic features in English and the results obtained from a survey conducted by the author among 29 Russian EFL teachers. The paper argues that whereas L1 intonation interference seriously affects learners’ cultural image, its role in EFL teaching is significantly undervalued as compared to that of grammar and vocabulary. It concludes by suggesting practical ways to facilitate intonation teaching in a Russian EFL classroom.

The Theory of Industrial Society and Cultural Schemata: Does the "Cultural Myth of Stigma" Underlie the WHO Schizophrenia Paradox?

The WHO's International Studies of Schizophrenia conclude that schizophrenia may have a more benign course in "developing" societies than in the West. The authors focus on this finding's most common corollary: cultural schemata are shaped by the transition from agrarian to industrial society. Developing societies are viewed as traditional, gemeinschaft cultures lacking the stigmatizing beliefs about persons with mental illness held in modern, gesellschaft cultures of developed societies. The Stigma in Global Context-Mental Health Study formalized the cultural myth of public stigma (CMPS) with propositions linking level of development to intolerant, exclusionary, and individualistic attitudes. In 17 countries, the authors find no support for the corollary; where support is found, the findings are opposite expectations, with developed societies reporting lower stigma levels. Reconceptualizing of the cultural landscape on more specific dimensions also produces null or contrary findings. This correction to nostalgic myths of cultural context in developing societies thwarts misguided treatment, policy, and stigma-reduction efforts.